Focusing on accelerating CCS deployment in Europe

An event at the European Parliament hosted by MEPs Theresa Griffin (S&D, UK) and Krišjanis Karinš (EPP, LV) brought together experts in the global carbon, capture & storage (CCS) community. It enabled industry experts to elaborate on key CCS projects and discuss measures to speed up the deployment of CCS in Europe.

World-leading CCS projects in both the power and industrial sectors from Canada, the US, Norway and the Middle East presented the innovative work currently underway that is aiding successful deployment of CCS in their respective regions.

Andy Purvis, Global CCS Institute General Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, stated: “Today we have seen CCS in action in many different regions around the world, as well as across many industrial sectors. One of the major drivers for policies supporting broad-based CCS deployment is the challenge of reducing CO₂ emissions from industrial processes, which make up around 25% of CO₂ emissions globally, and a similar proportion in Europe. What CCS needs to succeed is certainty about the timing, nature, extent and durability of European and national plans for sustainable and secure industrial and energy production.”

The event also marked the official publication of ZEP’s Report: Modelling the lowest-cost route to decarbonising Europe. The report concludes that it will cost an additional €1.2 trillion to reach the EU’s CO₂ reduction target for the power sector without CCS, while many energy intensive industries would simply not be able to achieve the necessary emissions reductions.

This makes getting the right support measures set up to accelerate CCS deployment vital over the next ten years. At the event, ZEP complemented their report with a presentation of the platform’s recently published Executable Plan for enabling CCS in Europe, which outlines actions to ensure the commercialisation of CCS in Europe.

Dr Graeme Sweeney, ZEP Chairman, commented: “CCS is here, it is commercially viable and there is enormous potential across the power and energy intensive sectors to decarbonise. If we delay, we will simply fail to achieve our European climate objectives. We must disrupt the logic that emitting CO₂ is cheaper than capturing and storing it. The Executable Plan for enabling CCS in Europe lays out concrete steps for delivering CCS, ensuring a strong business case for investment. The European Commisison and stakeholders across the CCS chain must work together to push the deployment of CCS now.“

Luke Warren, CCSA CEO, said: “We are seeing a growing realisation that CCS is an essential component of a cost-effective European decarbonisation strategy and the message we heard today was that Europe has to take action now to develop the technology. Of absolute urgency is the need to get the first projects over the finish line, including the ROAD project in the Netherlands, as well as the White Rose and Peterhead projects in the UK. Building on these first projects, it is vital that the Energy Union provides a framework for continued investment in CCS across Europe, encouraging Member States to articulate the expected contribution from CCS in their national climate and energy plans.”

Edited from press release by Harleigh Hobbs

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/power/16112015/focusing-on-accelerating-ccs-deployment-in-europe-3164/